1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to mobile communication devices and their operation with remote voicemail systems, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for remotely configuring voice mailboxes of voicemail systems from mobile communication devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
“Voicemail” is a common feature for practically all voice-based communication products. As examples, home telephone systems now offer voicemail features built right into telephones, telephone companies offer voicemail services in their phone networks, corporations provide voicemail for every desk with integration with e-mail, and wireless carriers offer voicemail packages in connection with their cellular telephones. The average professional may have two or three different voicemail systems that must be checked for new voicemail messages from the home, the office, or cellular telephone. Each voicemail system typically has a different password access and different command codes for the same voicemail functions (e.g. PLAY, REWIND, SAVE, and DELETE). The result of the above is that the end user must check several different voicemail systems for voicemail while away and remember each set of voicemail command codes. It would be advantageous to simplify the interaction with respect to one or more voicemail systems.
Mobile communication devices, such as cellular telephones or mobile e-mail devices, are also becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Many present-day mobile devices provide easy-to-use user interfaces for the input and output of user information. For example, a mobile device may provide an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) for several primary applications of the mobile device (e.g. e-mail or Internet applications). Conventionally, however, this GUI is not associated with the configuration of a voice mailbox of a voicemail system. Voice mailbox configuration information typically includes a user password, an audible greeting, and an audible user name. A voicemail system typically requires the user to call the voicemail system and actuate Dual Tone Multiple Frequency (DTMF) keys of the telephone device (i.e. voicemail system specific commands) to enter password information and speak into a microphone to record a user greeting and name. It would be further advantageous to simplify the user interface of the mobile device for consistency and ease-of-use for voice mailbox configuration.